A whole hand!

Wyatt is Rowan's only boy cousin (that is until we officially welcome Henry into the clan in August). They have good times together. One activity greatly enjoyed by both parties is going to the zoo. We got to go in the bitter cold of January much to the boys' delight despite the frigid temperatures (even though Rowan isn't quite showing it in this picture).

Aawww... so cute! :D

Sure it looks like they're just showing some love but if I remember correctly I think Rowan had accidentally whacked Wyatt with a toy just before this and he was apologizing with a hug.

Boys first, loving cousins second ;)

Today we took another special zoo trip when we went out with Rowan, me, Mom, Courtney, Krystle, Hayden, Cameron, Wyatt, Kiel, and Cherise (with Henry in tow of course) for Wyatt's BIRTHDAY!! :D :D :D The zoo was definitely a hit today and not just because the sun shining and it was BEAUTIFUL morning.

We took turns on the tractor.

And we looked at ducks, turtles, and fish! Among many many other creatures including (but not limited to) elephants, monkeys, and a cougar!!

Those boy cousins were certainly entertained :)

Once we were back at gramma and grandpa's house the best complement a toddler can give was given by both Rowan and Wyatt. In appreciation of being shown a great time and as evidence that they took full advantage of it they both took really good afternoon naps :)



I hope it was a good birthday Wyatt :) and now we can finally say it, after being reminded by you since your last birthday, today you are FIVE YEARS OLD!! :D

Rowan likes rocks

This evening we went to a birthday party for my aunt at my uncle's house. It was much warmer than I'd expected which resulted in Rowan arriving in a cute button up shirt, some khaki overalls, and little green hightop converse shoes. After some playing in the sun and running around after cousins he ended up like this.

Barefoot and pantsless in a gravel pit.
I took off his socks and shoes but he was still too hot so I took off the cute overalls. Then he looked like he might be getting sunburned but I didn't have sunscreen so I took him to the backyard which was shady. It also had a fun area with lots and lots of little rocks just begging to be sat in, kicked, piled, and thrown.
Rowan graciously obliged the rocks ;)


After a while I put his overalls back on him because the shady backyard was too cold for bare little leggys and he played happily.

That is until...

his cruel mother took away the tastiest looking (sharp and rough) rock
that he just happened to be chewing on.

Life can be so unkind... and so can mothers.

my brave little knight

Rowan has never really liked the vacuum so when I brought it out yesterday to vacuum the new carpet and the furniture he was a little wary. Luckily he's got a good Aunty and she distracted him by taking him to play in his room while I dragged around the bellowing beast. After I had finished and was wrapping up the cord Rowan picked up the hose and wielded it like a gun... or fire hose. Either way I was happy that he was not scared of every part of the vacuum.
He's a good brave little boy :)

chaaaarge!

He was pretty happy that I didn't put the cushion back right away. Normally this chair is too tall for him to climb up on his own.

It is definitely spring break, lounging in pjs and texting at midday. Life is good on spring break ;) and we're sure glad that Courtney decided to spend hers with us!

carpet adventures

We recently decided to get new carpet in our living room and hallway. Rowan thoroughly enjoyed the shopping process. Those big carpet warehouses are great for little kids to run around in. Especially on a rainy morning when there are hardly any customers in the joint. It was good fun. I decided on a carpet and we booked a installation date. All I had to do was get the carpet up, I chose to DIY that bit. It just seems silly to pay someone else for something that's so easy to do yourself.

Here's my little man of the house on carpet uninstall day, hangin out with Aunty Courtney.

He didn't get to help with the cutting or ripping up but he did help himself to the pile of furniture and things that are normally in the living room. Of which his favorite was his toy guitar.

Since the "man" of my house is my little man we called up his Uncle Evan who was happy to come with down Aunty Crystal and lend a hand (and a couple arms) to the project.

Afterwards Rowan introduced him to the puddles at the end of the driveway.


After that he got cleaned up and we visited Uncle Evan and Aunty Crystal's house for dinner and some scrapbooking fun. I can't believe how much Rowan looks like Logan in this picture.
It's uncanny!

The carpet installation was this morning and it went pretty smoothly. Rowan and Max went over to hang out with friends until it was done. Which worked out really well :) So... do you want to see it?

Here it is!!

Max took advantage of the lack of furniture to "test" out the new carpet. It definitely passed the test (believe me I did the same thing ;D its rollability is top notch)

Enjoying a break in the nutty weather

The sun actually peeked its face out from behind the grey today. In spite of the snow, rain, and wind :) So we went for a little walk up and down our street a couple times. Rowan just likes to be out so I let him walk. It's a bit easier (and dryer) on the sidewalk instead of running around the backyard. Especially today with all the precip. In any case, I finally remembered the camera when we were doing something so I present to you all, our blustery puddle adventure!

He started out holding my hand because he walked across the street. It didn't last long once he spotted the rocks and puddles.

Rowan's not one to fuss over his hair
but he's not a big fan of it blowing around.

He seemed to forget
about the wind though

when I gave him a chance
to splash in some puddles.

What a cutie eh?

It didn't take too long after finding some gravel for Rowan to remember that throwing rocks into water is one of life's great joys.




After playing with rocks and rain puddles we spent a bit of time in the backyard until it started getting too cold.

It was a fun afternoon :)

just a few pics of da boy

We haven't been up to much in the last week but I've been encouraged to keep this updated :) so I will.

I seem to forget my camera quite a bit when we're actually doing stuff but for some reason I can remember it at meal time. Go figure. Anyway, the picture above is over at our friends' house and below is home, notice the snow. Yeah that was just a few days ago. Today it's been raining so we're finally snow free but it was a tenacious bit of the white stuff for sure.

I just love that little grin!!

Rowan is into putting on shoes. Usually he's tromping around in one of whatever he could get and keep on his foot. Two shoes often takes a bit more patience and time than he can afford. There are always other toys to play with or books that mom has just put back on the shelf, it's a busy life being a one year old.

Yesterday we were getting ready to go out and he brought me one of his little NZ gumboots so I put it on him then he brought me one of his dad's boots. It was so cute I made him stand there for a picture. He was really good about it. Other than being a little squirrelly he is pretty much always good for pictures.

So there you go, our update: We've been eating and putting on shoes :)

Hooray for sunshine!!

Winter has been long and slow about packing its bags and heading OUT. Fortunately I have a little sunshine that has made the cold, grey, and crummy weather bearable.

The shot above is from about two weeks ago, that snow all melted away but we got a smattering of new stuff a few days ago so the back yard is mostly white again. The front yard however is almost all green :) yay sun.


While stuck inside Rowan likes to read books and play with his toys. He also enjoys watching his favorite TV show, the Backyardigans. It's a kids show about five colorful animal friends who play in their shared backyard. They sing and dance during every episode (and so does Rowan).


This slump he's doing here didn't last very long, he tried to sit in the chair by himself but couldn't get his little bum far enough back in the chair so he just slumped back and put his foot up. I think it's really funny since he doesn't sit for longer than a minute or two very often.




This is Rowan in my parent's music room. He found the box of toys under the buffet and proceeded to amaze me by stacking FIVE blocks! We don't even have wooden blocks at home. After this display I decided we're going to have to get some.




This funny face is from this morning. We went out to get some flowers for a friend in honor of her return from vacation and in celebration of a BEAUTIFUL sunny day :D

I asked him to say, "cheese" but I think that his smile was actually because of a combination of the sun in his face and a crow he just spied down the sidewalk. Just after I got this picture he set the flowers down and started chasing it laughing.

Rowan really likes birds.

Quilts and cuties and cheeks, oh my!

Last week after helping my mom make a quilt for my sister's birthday I decided I wanted one too. Logan told me I could buy myself something nice so I decided buying enough flannel for a close to queen size quilt would be nice :) It's not really big enough for my queen size bed but it does cover the top so it's a good size for movie watching and definitely big enough for two ;) I can't wait to cuddle up in it with my wonderful hubby! *sigh* :)

Anyway, here's sort of the journey from fabric squares to cuddling up.

I cut out all the squares and after laying out the pattern I stacked up each column and separated them with little numbered papers. I love that tea fabric. It's so great :)

Here's evidence I actually did do some of the sewing. I "quilted" each square with an 'X'. I asked my Mom to sew the columns together so they'd be straight and nice.

Here it is all finished :D the back is all the brown fabric.

This is the "test run" Genevieve was watching Pooh's Heffalump movie and I have to say the quilt worked juuuust fine :) I snuggled in there after we took this picture. I'm excited to take it down to Sisters and use it during the traditional watching of Pride and Prejudice :D

Tonight I gave Rowan a splashy bath which was made EXTRA special when we got an EXTRA special phone call ;) It was really fun but sort of hard to keep Rowan from standing up and trying to grab my cell phone ;) Rowan showed off his animal sounds and got a good laugh :)


Afterwards tempted by the promise of a "cookie" (animal cracker) I lured Rowan out of the tub and into a towel. Which is promptly abadoned and made a run for it :)

He ran around frightening my brother's Hayden and Cameron with his nakedness. Cameron actually jumped up on a chair, then a table to get away from him. It was so funny!




After some protest I did get him back on a towel, dried off completely and jammied.




After a bit of a bump on the head (made all better by a cuddle with mama of course) we collected blankie, donkey, and the pluggie and Rowan went to bed. he's a good boy :)

Happy birthday pinkie!!

Today is Courtney's birthday!! She has reddish pink in her hair, which looks awesome. She's 17 today. She's my sister. I love her. Even though she can be a bit of a drama queen. She is an amazing young lady. She loves God. She likes Taco Bell. And she's a SUPERB aunty. I think she's great!

Way to be 17 Courtney... way to be.

I did it

After a bit of thought, a few "second thoughts", and a smidgen of apprehension I decided that another ear piercing would be fun, cute, and not a big deal. I knew it'd be reversible if I didn't like the outcome but now that I have them I think they're here to stay.

I guess somewhere in my mind I thought it would look a least a bit tough.

This is from the mind of a girl whose ONLY body modification was her first set of earrings gotten in the first grade. Of course the second set doesn't make me look any rougher or tougher than the first. I chose little alexandrite crystals (June's birthstone in honor of Logan's birthday) and they look really sweet. From a distance you can't even tell they're there. I think though that after I can switch out earring I could probably "toughen" them up by switching to some metal skulls or something if I really wanted. Ha ha, I don't think I could look much like a hooligan if I tried. Least of all with my two little gemstone earrings in each ear.

In any case I like them... and I hope Logan does too. I don't think he read the email I sent him telling him I was thinking about doing it. I have a feeling he'll think they're cute.

He's a dancy boy

On Saturday Rowan enjoyed part of the Miss America pageant at grandpa and gramma's house. He watched one girl tap dance for her talent, after staring for a couple seconds he started stomping quickly and giggling. After that one another girl was dancing for her talent. I missed Rowan spinning along with her but I did manage to catch his last little dance on video as well as him joining in the applause. It seems that every time he hears applause on TV he'll clap along, even if he's in the middle of playing or in the other room. It's really cute :)

Gremmy was there too!

I noticed that I didn't get any pictures of Rowan's Gremmy into that last post. While part of that reason has to do with card reading and networked computers, and brothers who pirate the internet away from certain boxes to play certain GAMES... the larger reason is that on this last trip the Gremmy was quite elusive as far as the camera was concerned. I do have a photo of her from our game night... but I fear reprisal. You gotta be careful when your mother-in-law has a blog and a camera too ya know ;)

Choosing the safer than sorry route I'm just going to show you at least that she was with us. Here we are sending her off to visit her parents in Anacortes. (She's up at the ticket counter.) Rowan was the perfect gentleman and helped her with her bag.

Until that is he needed a little help himself.
Then his dad lent him a hand ;)

Speaking of that dad guy...

I think we can safely call Rowan "Chip"

we don't always get to see the cute side of that "ol' block" through all the tough and gruff but it's there :)